Butler, Vermont Series: Boxed Set, Books 1-3

by Force, Marie

  “Hey, Mom, it’s Wade.”

  “Oh, honey. I’m so glad you called. How did it go?”

  “It was great. Mia’s dad is very nice and so happy to have found her.”

  “I’ll never understand how her mother could’ve done that to him—or to Mia.”

  “I’m trying to keep an open mind about her. Two sides to every story and all that.”

  “Still…”

  “I know.”

  “How’s Mia?”

  “She’s overwhelmed but good. I think.”

  She smiled and gave him a thumbs-up.

  “It’s been quite a week for her—and me. It’ll take us a while to process, but it’s all good. Her dad wants to have a wedding for us.”

  “That would be nice.”

  “I was hoping you’d think so.”

  “Of course I do, Wade. A blind person could see how happy you are with her.”

  “I am happy.” He held out his hand to Mia, and she came to sit on his lap. Wrapping his arm around her, he anchored her to him. “We’re going to stay here for a couple of nights. Give her a chance to get to know her dad before we head home. Will you spread the word and let Dad know I’ll be out of work?”

  “I will.”

  “Tell Ella she’s in charge. She’ll know what needs to be done.”

  “Will do. Oh wait, Dad is saying something. Apparently, Amanda decided to extend her stay into next week, so don’t worry about the employee training. It’s been postponed until you get back.”

  Wade wondered if either of his younger brothers had something to do with Amanda’s decision to stay longer. “They should feel free to proceed without me.”

  Molly laughed. “I’ll let Dad know that.”

  “Please do.”

  “Enjoy yourselves in Boston.”

  “Oh, we will.”

  Mia elbowed him, making him laugh.

  “That’s my signal to say good night, and I love you.”

  “Love you, too, Mom.” He ended the call and handed the phone to Mia.

  “Such a nice boy,” she said, smoothing her free hand over his face.

  “Because I love my mom?”

  “That’s one of many reasons.”

  He fell back on the bed, bringing her with him. “Tell me the others.”

  From her perch on top of him, she said, “You’re kind and thoughtful and funny, and you let me bomb into your house with my drama and my stuff and you never blinked an eye. You were sweet to me from the first time we ever talked, and my first impression of you has never changed. And—”

  Wade kissed her because he couldn’t wait another minute to taste her lips. He felt like it’d been days since he last kissed her like this, when really, it hadn’t even been twelve hours.

  “And you’re so sexy,” she whispered. “The hottest guy I’ve ever met.”

  “No way.”

  “Yes, you are.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Whatever you say.”

  “That’s right. I’m your wife, and what I say goes.”

  “Wow, I walked right into that trap, didn’t I?”

  She giggled with delight.

  He ached with love for her. Kissing her again, he said, “I’ve never been so happy to be trapped.”

  Chapter 26

  “Where we love is home—home that our

  feet may leave, but not our hearts.”

  —Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

  In the morning, Wade introduced Mia to the fine art of room-service breakfast, which he served her in bed. They fed each other oatmeal, toast with strawberry preserves and fruit while drinking coffee from a cup they shared. The hotel had even provided soy milk, which impressed her greatly.

  “Best breakfast ever,” she said with a sigh. “I love room service. Can we get it at home?”

  Wade smiled, delighted by her. “I’ll be your room-service waiter whenever you want breakfast in bed.”

  “Ohhh, don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

  “I never would. You want it, you got it.”

  She gazed at him with love and a hint of wariness that got his attention.

  “What’re you thinking?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Don’t say nothing when I can tell it’s something.”

  She rolled her lip between her teeth. “You’re not going to suddenly get different or remote or weird or mean or anything like that, are you?”

  “I’m not planning to.”

  “Do people actually plan to turn into jerks?”

  “I think some people are born that way. The rest of us would rather be nice than be jerks. My grandfather says you get much further in life with sugar than you ever will with vinegar.”

  “He’s so cute.” She looked at him with those gorgeous navy-blue eyes that had captivated him from the start, her hair like a gold-spun halo around her face. “I used to think the bad boys were sexy. Now I know better. Good guys who are also sexy is where it’s at.”

  He drew her into a kiss. “I still can’t believe I get to kiss you every day for the rest of my life.”

  “Yes, please do.” Her focus shifted to his lips. “I love kissing you. I knew I would.”

  “Did you?”

  Nodding, she said, “All the time we were apart, I imagined what it would be like to be with you this way.”

  “And? Is it living up to the hype?”

  “It’s so much better. So, so much better. If I’d had a day like yesterday before I had you, I would’ve been a disaster. Knowing you have my back…”

  He wrapped his arms around her. “I always have your back.”

  She nuzzled his neck and squirmed on top of him. “Get back in bed.”

  “Yes, dear.”

  “Will you always be so agreeable?” she asked when he had her snuggled into his embrace.

  “If my wife is asking me to come back to bed, then yes, I will always be agreeable.”

  Her giggle made him smile. That was quickly becoming one of his favorite sounds.

  “You know what we have to do while we’re here?”

  “What?”

  He took her left hand and kissed the ring he’d recently put on her finger. “We need to get something sparkly to go along with your wedding ring since we skipped the whole engagement portion of the let’s-get-married program.”

  She withdrew her hand. “We don’t need that.”

  “What if I need it? If we’d had a traditional relationship, we would’ve dated for a week, maybe two, and then I would’ve gotten down on one knee and asked you to marry me. And I would’ve had a ring for you.”

  She raised a brow. “A week, maybe two?”

  “If it took that long for me to beg you to marry me as soon as possible.”

  “You’re being silly.”

  “No, I’m not. I told myself a long time ago that if I ever got a chance with you, I’d make it permanent as fast as I possibly could. So, as you can see, you showing up needing me to marry you worked out rather well for both of us.”

  “I don’t need a ring.”

  “I want you to have one.”

  “You want to buy that farm and go on a honeymoon. We shouldn’t spend money on a ring we don’t need.”

  “You know what happens when you live like a monk and work all the time and don’t date or go out because the woman you want isn’t available?”

  “What?” she asked, sounding somewhat breathless.

  “You sock away a lot of money. You can have a ring and a honeymoon and the farm. If you like the place when you see it, that is.”

  “I can’t wait to see it.”

  “So, yes to the ring?”

  “If you insist,” she said with a sigh.

  “I insist.”

  After spending the rest of the morning in bed, they dragged themselves into the shower.

  Wade got dressed, and while Mia dried her hair, he turned on the TV where the lead story on the local news was the resolution of Boston City Councilman Cabot Lodge�
�s decades-long quest to find his missing daughter.

  The story included an interview with Cabot, who was tearful while talking about his daughter. “Yesterday was the second-best day of my life,” he said, reading from a statement, “second only to the day Mia was born. I’m so thankful to have met my beautiful daughter and her husband and to have her back in my life. I can’t say enough about the people who supported me during this long ordeal, particularly my late parents, my siblings, nieces and nephews. I never gave up on finding her, and I never stopped loving her.” They showed a photo taken last night of Mia standing between Wade and Cabot that he must’ve provided.

  “Such a great outcome to a heartbreaking story,” one of the anchors said.

  “I know Cabot,” the other anchor said, “and can attest to how difficult this situation has been for him. I think I speak for everyone here when I send him our sincere congratulations that his long search has ended so happily.”

  “Indeed,” the other anchor said. “Let’s talk about this weather!”

  Wade breathed a sigh of relief that there’d been no mention of Mia’s connection to Brody in the report.

  The local meteorologist explained the reason for the rare seventy-degree day in January as a convergence of high- and low-pressure systems that would give Boston one day of springlike weather before the cold returned the next day.

  “It’s going to get up to seventy today,” Wade told Mia when she emerged from the bathroom wearing the hotel robe.

  “In January?”

  “A freak weather event. Your dad was just on. They interviewed him about finally finding you and showed a picture of the three of us together.”

  “It’s so weird to be part of things that make the news. I’m looking forward to returning to my normal, boring life that doesn’t include reporters.”

  “Your new life will never be boring, babe,” he said with a rakish grin.

  “You know what I mean.”

  “I do. You’re not comfortable in the spotlight.”

  “Not at all.”

  “Hopefully, it won’t be on you for much longer. But we don’t need to think about that today. We have the whole afternoon before we’re due to meet your dad for dinner. Let’s go check out Boston on this gorgeous day.”

  “I’d love to.”

  They went to the top of the Prudential Building, strolled along the Charles, had lunch at Faneuil Hall, walked through the Boston Commons and sat in the grass to soak up the warm sunshine.

  “Such a beautiful day,” Mia said, reclining on her elbows, her face turned toward the sun.

  “It’s like a little gift in the middle of winter,” Wade said, looking at her rather than the blue sky. She was much more beautiful, wearing a lightweight maroon sweater and jeans. If she was nearby, he’d rather look at her than anything else. “Next stop is the jewelry store. I saw one a couple of blocks over that looked nice.”

  She reached for him, and he leaned over her, waiting to see what she would do while she fixed his hair and studied his face.

  “What?”

  “I like to look at you.”

  “I was just thinking the same thing—about you, of course.” He kissed her, wishing there was time to linger. But there’d be time to linger later. “Come on. We’ve got things to do.” He helped her up and laced his fingers through hers for the short walk to the store he’d spotted earlier.

  Inside the store, a clerk asked if they needed help.

  “I need an engagement ring for my lovely wife,” Wade said.

  “I think that might be the first time I’ve had that request.”

  Smiling, Wade glanced at Mia. “We’ve done everything out of order, but that’s okay. It works for us.”

  The clerk showed them a stunning array of rings in a wide variety of cuts and settings.

  “Which one do you like, hon?” Wade asked.

  Mia shook her head. “I could never decide. I’m not even supposed to be here for this.”

  “That’s true,” Wade said, eyeing the rings and zeroing in on the one his eye kept coming back to. “I like this one.” He picked up the ring for a closer look. The band was made of tiny diamonds, and the diamond in the middle was surrounded by a circle of smaller stones. “What do you think?”

  “That’s way too much.”

  “You said it’s my decision. This is the one I like for you. Let me see it on you.” He took her left hand and slid it on next to her wedding band. “That’s really pretty. Don’t you think?”

  “Wade…” She shook her head.

  “You don’t like it?”

  “Anyone would like that ring, but you don’t have to—”

  He leaned in to kiss her. “I know I don’t have to. I want to. Please?”

  A sniffling sound diverted his attention from Mia. The clerk dabbed at a tear. “You two are simply adorable.”

  Mia laughed. “He is adorable.”

  “You both are,” the clerk said. “It does my heart good to meet two people who obviously belong together.”

  Smiling, Wade gazed at Mia. “Say yes to the ring, my love. Jennifer says we belong together. The ring will seal the deal.”

  Mia looked down at the ring and then back up at him. “I say yes to the ring and to you and to everything.”

  After having dinner with Mia’s father, they drove home to Vermont the next day. Cabot had promised to come to Butler for a visit in the next few weeks, and they’d exchanged phone numbers so they could stay in touch between visits.

  “What’re you going to do about your mom?” Wade asked as they crossed the Vermont state border.

  “I guess I’ll call her when we get home. It’ll take a while for us to get past this, but I don’t want to be estranged from her.”

  “I’m trying to picture us having a real wedding and both of your parents being there.”

  “I won’t invite her. That wouldn’t be fair to Cabot. She got all the other big moments in my life. That one should belong to him. As far as I’m concerned, there’s no need for them to ever see each other again.”

  “That might be for the best.”

  Outside of Butler, not far from where Ella and Gavin lived, Wade took a detour to show Mia the farm he’d looked at a couple of times. The last time he’d been here, the project had interested him, but not enough to pull the trigger on the purchase. Now that he had a wife, a family of his own, his thoughts had again returned to the farm. While he loved his current home, it was small—too small to add to their family someday.

  He parked the truck in front of the ramshackle house and killed the engine. “Try not to see what it looks like now, but instead imagine what’s possible.”

  “I love all the land and the view of the mountains in the distance.”

  “The view was one of the first things I loved about it, too. Let’s go take a look.”

  “Are we allowed to go in?” Mia asked when they walked toward the sagging front porch.

  “I know the owners. They won’t care.”

  “What is it with people in this town not locking their doors?”

  “That’s Butler for you.” He opened the door and gestured for her to go in ahead of him. The interior was dirty and ridden with cobwebs and reeked of neglect. “I was thinking we could remove some walls, open up the kitchen into the living and dining rooms. New floors and windows, rebuild the fireplace. That could be an office in there, and there’re three bedrooms and two bathrooms upstairs, one of them in what could be a master suite.”

  “Can I see it?”

  “Sure. Go on up. Just hold on. I don’t know if the stairs are solid.” He followed her up the stairs and watched her inspect every room. The last door she opened was the spacious master.

  “Oh, there’s a fireplace up here, too. I love that.” In the attached bathroom, she let out a squeal at the sight of the grungy claw-foot bathtub.

  “It needs a lot of work, but I think we could really make it into something special.”

  “Wade… This is
just… I can picture us here.”

  He put his hands on her hips and gazed down at her. “And maybe some little Wades and Mias in the other rooms?”

  She rested her hand on her heart, the new ring on her finger catching the light from outside. “It’s too much.”

  “No, baby,” he whispered as he kissed her. “It’s everything you deserve.”

  “Can we afford this?”

  “If we do most of the work ourselves, we can. My cousin Noah is a contractor who would help with the big things, and my brothers will help, too.”

  Mia’s cell phone rang, and her eyes lit up with delight. “And there’s cell service here! Sold!” She took the phone from her pocket, and her smile faded at the sight of Larry’s name on her caller ID.

  “It’s okay,” Wade said. “Take the call. No matter what it is, it can’t touch us if we don’t let it.”

  Nodding, she pressed the button and put the call on speaker so Wade could hear, too. “Hi, Larry.”

  “Mia, I’m glad I caught you. I tried the home number you gave me, but when there was no answer, I figured I’d take a chance on your cell. There’s been a significant development in the case, and I wanted to let you know right away.”

  Wade put his arm around her, and she leaned into him.

  “What kind of development?”

  “The kind in which Brody realizes he’s totally screwed if you testify against him. He’s indicated his willingness to accept a plea deal that would require him to name names of the much bigger fish who were feeding his organization. We told him the only way we’ll cut a deal with him on the drug charges is if he also pleads guilty to assaulting you.”

  Mia looked up at Wade, her shock apparent.

  “This is Wade, Larry. What did he say to pleading guilty to the assault charges?”

  “He said he’ll do it to get the plea deal.”

  “How much time will he serve?”

  “He’s looking at fifteen to twenty on all the charges. Mia? Are you still there?”

  “Yes, yes, I’m here. I just… I can’t believe it. I never thought he’d admit to any of it.”

  “When he heard you’d married someone else, I think he knew the jig was up. He was looking at up to twenty years in prison on the drug charges alone. This deal gives him a chance of parole while he’s still young enough to enjoy it.”